'Two Gono Forum MPs-elect may take oath'

Two candidates from Gono Forum who won in the 11th parliamentary election may take oath as Members of Parliament (MPs).

Dr Kamal Hossain, president of Gono Forum and chief of Jatiya Oikyafront, gave the signal at a press briefing after emerging from a meeting of his party on Saturday.

“We are looking at the matter positively and we will take a positive decision,” he said, reports bdnews24.com.

There were doubts that the Gono Forum candidates would take their seats because the opposition alliance rejected the results of the December 30 polls.

Awami League and Jatiya Party members of parliament took their oaths of office on Thursday, but the two Gono Forum winners and five BNP winners did not.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that day: “The time for taking oaths has passed. Why would we take office if we are boycotting the results? We say clearly that we will not take the oaths.”

Kamal Hossain indicated that his party may diverge from the decision of its allies at a meeting on Saturday.

Asked whether the two winning Gono Forum candidates would take their seats, he said: “We are adopting a positive approach.”

“The two candidates who won did so in the face of difficult competition. We will take positive decisions in their case,” he said.

Gono Forum candidate and former DUCSU Vice President Sultan Mohammad Monsur won as the paddy sheaf candidate from Moulvibazar-2, while Gono Forum’s Mukabbir Khan won with the party’s ‘rising sun’ symbol.

Asked whether Monsur’s election win under a paddy sheaf symbol could cause issues with the BNP, Kamal said he did not believe it would.

The BNP had formed the Jatiya Oikya Front, an alliance convened by Gono Forum president Kamal Hossain, to contest the election held on December 30.

Five candidates of the BNP and two candidates from ally Gono Forum were elected, while the ruling Awami League and its close allies bagged 267. The Jatiya Party, an ally of the Awami League, came second with 20 seats.

But the seven winning candidates of the opposition did not take oath as MPs until now, rejecting calls from ruling party leaders.